Beginning the Movie with Death
by Gamine Madcap
Summary: Running away made them feel like cowards. But what else could they do, when the whole world was going to hell in a hand-basket? AU Whoverse. Please R/R!
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hello all. A word of explanation of the timeline of this story.

Post-season four, without the Donna-mindswipe. Because Donna is awesome, and RTD is an idiot. Mickey went back to the parallel universe—again, because I say so. For Torchwood, Owen and Tosh are alive, because it's more fun that way.

Disclaimer: I own nothing…except Jessie. I sorta own her. Other than that…I just let my plot bunnies do bad things to them.

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_There is a time for departure even when there's no certain place to go._

_-Tennessee Williams

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Prologue

The vault-like door opened, and a tall man ran inside, closely followed by a woman, a teenage girl, and finally another younger man. The two men pushed the door closed on the sounds of pounding and explosions from somewhere above and beyond them. The girl threw a tarp off of a mass on one side of the room, revealing a large, complex-looking machine. As she began to throw some switches, the older man joined her, and the blond woman and tall young man began gathering the backpacks in another part of the otherwise empty room.

The quartet worked in a thick silence, with the air of having a very limited amount of time. For several minutes, no one spoke—there were several things to do, but more importantly, there was an unspoken fear that once they began speaking, it would be to say goodbye. And none of them wanted to begin that process.

The air was filled with the sounds of whirling machinery as the monstrosity in the corner started up. The man and girl wore identical expressions of concentration as they moved around the various parts, typing things into keypads and reaching across each other to throw switches. As the woman and younger man finished their own tasks, she couldn't help but stare at the duo with a heartbreaking longing, drinking in the vision of them working together as if, if she just stared long enough, she could save them all from what was about to come.

Turning her attention back to the young man at her side, she smiled sadly at him, reaching up to adjust the straps on his backpack. He smiled down at her. "I'll look after her, sis. You know I will," he said in a low voice. The woman nodded, not quite able to meet his gaze. The man and girl stepped away from the machine to let it finish booting up, and they moved over to where the others were. The man began helping the girl with her own backpack, finally breaking the silence as he did.

"There's no real telling where you'll end up," he said. It was all information they knew, but that didn't matter. "Or when, for that matter. Taking into account the Rift, and all of the other variables…well, we just can't know for certain." As he finished settling her pack, he turned her to face him. The blond woman moved over to them, picking and adjusting the girl's jacket, more for the need to have physical contact with the younger girl than for any real need.

"Be careful of Torchwood," the woman said. "If Captain Jack isn't still in charge when you arrive, there could be trouble. Best to lay low until you know for certain." She stepped back, wiping away the first tear that was threatening to spill over. "Just…stick together, no matter what. Look after each other." The girl nodded.

"We will, Mum. You don't have to worry 'bout us." She put on a brave smile, gaze moving from her to the older man by her side. The young man with reddish hair stepped back and over to the machine, watching it intently to give the trio some semblance of privacy. Looking at her parents, the teenage girl's smile faltered.

"Maybe we shouldn't do this," she said. "It's not too late. And we should be here. With you."

The adults gave her sad, proud smiles. "You know what's going to happen, love," the woman said. "Someone has to survive this. Someone has to remember."

"Besides," the man added. "If there's any chance at all that the Raxons could spread beyond this universe…someone has to be able to warn them." The girl nodded, a sad resolute expression coming over her. She knew those were simply altruistic reasons to try and make them feel better. So that they wouldn't feel like cowards, running away at the end of the battle. So that her parents wouldn't have to say they were doing it simply to keep her and her uncle safe.

The young man turned away from the machine, tapping the screen with one finger. "I think it's ready," he said in a soft voice. In one motion, the girl and older man turned to face him. The dark haired man walked over to the machine, looking over the readings, finally nodding. It was time.

As they came together in the middle of the room, the girl hugged her mother tightly, just barely able to refrain from sobbing. She didn't want to leave, no matter what was coming. The two men looked at each other before exchanging a hug. They were nearly of equal height, and they hugged without reservation. Breaking apart the older man shook the younger's hand, giving him a proud nod. "Good man," he said softly.

Exchanging partners, the siblings exchanged their own hugs. The blond woman stood on her toes to wrap her arms around her brother, and they silently squeezed each other tight. Next to them, the girl looked up at her father, identical brown eyes locking into each other. They just stared at each other for a long moment, before he leaned in to wrap his long arms around her. There were no words between them, yet there was the sense of something deeper happening. Finally breaking apart, he held her at arms length, looking down on her proudly. "My Jessie," he said. "My brilliant girl. You are going to have such a _fantastic_ life."

She tried to smile back at him. "Are you sure we couldn't try to all go?" she asked. "If we widen the parameters of the energy field…"

"We would blow out the power for the entire quadrant," he finished. "For at least twelve hours. And you know what that would lead too." With a disappointed sigh, she nodded and looked away, towards the machine. She knew it as well as he did. She had helped to build the thing after all.

"If there's any chance at all that we can follow…" he added. She looked at him again, sticking her hands in her pockets. They knew what the likelihood of that was too. But still…it helped that he said it.

The quartet exchanged glances as the noises from outside increased. With resolved, poignant expressions, they moved into their final positions. The two younger people moved to stand in front of the machine, while the older man walked over the controls, his wife beside him. They looked at each other across the short distance, barely restrained distress on their faces.

"Love you," the blond said, raising a hand in farewell. The man by her side was silent, one hand resting on a lever. The girl smiled sadly, mirroring her mother's movement.

"Love you," she responded softly. Tears glistening in their eyes, the older man pulled the lever in one sharp movement, face as stiff as a wall. A bright white light filled the room, causing them to avert their eyes. When it faded, the adults were alone.

John and Rose Tyler turned to each other, the façade beginning to break down. Rose descended into sobs, and John took her in his arms. "It's alright," he said softly. "They're safe now. That's all that matters. They're safe."


	2. The Arrival

A/N: Okay, I may have lied before. Owen and Tosh are dead. Martha is working as Torchwood's medic, and Mickey returned to the alternate universe at the end of JE. And Donna still has her memory and is traveling with the Doctor. Got it? Good.

Disclaimer: If I owned them, there would be no chance of any of these rumors about Ten's final episode coming true.

On a clear night in Cardiff, a young man and slightly younger girl appeared out of a flash of light just off of a busy street. But as it was Cardiff, no one really noticed. The pair let out slight 'umphs' as they picked themselves up and brushed each other off, each looking the other over, checking for injuries. Satisfied with what they saw, they turned and took in their surroundings. And stared open-mouthed for several moments in complete silence.

Finally breaking out of her stupor, Jessie Tyler reached into a side pocket on her backpack and pulled out a small rectangular shaped device. She tapped on its screen repeatedly for several moments, her uncle keeping a watchful, rather shocked eye on their surroundings. Frustrated, Jessie shook the device with a growl.

"It'll take a bit of time for the GPS to calibrate with the satellites here," she said. Tony looked at her as she spoke. "Geography's the same, but everything here seems to operate on slightly different frequencies. Course, Mickey warned me that would happen." Sliding the GPS back into her backpack, she rested her hands on her straps and looked around. "Where do you think we are?"

Tony gestured up above them to a great dome-shaped building that looked to be a few streets over. "Well, that looks like Welsh," he said. Jessie grinned at him.

"How much you want to bet we ended up in Cardiff?" she asked. Tony just shook his head, processing the factors of their situation with a militaristic eye.

"Come on," he said. "We don't want to stay in one place too long. Not until we know better where and when we are." He led them out of the alley and in to the street, which was still fairly busy with people out and about, leading their lives. Again, the pair were struck by the sheer normalcy of it.

They walked down the main street for a few minutes in silence. Approaching the water front, they stopped at the sight and stared. "Oh," Jessie breathed. "Just _look_."

To the average person, there was nothing particularly spectacular about that night's view over the bay. But for Jessie and Tony, it was magnificent. "Christ," Tony said. "Didn't realize how happy I'd be just to see _sky_ again." Jessie nodded her agreement as they slowly moved on, breathing deep the clean air.

Tony spotted a newspaper sticking out of a trash can, and grabbed it. Turning over the pages so that he could see the front, he adjusted it so that Jessie could see too. "Yep, Cardiff," he muttered. Jessie just shook her head and nodded. "But look at the date."

His niece did so, and her brown eyes widened. "But that's…that's only, what, six months after mum and dad returned home?" she said, doing the calculations in her head. Based on the stories they had been told, and everything else...she nodded, confirming it to herself. "Yep, about six months."

"But how's that possible?" Tony asked. "I know time travels a little faster in our world, and John said there could be some variation…but surely we shouldn't have been able to come back _this _far."

Jessie shrugged, one hand going back to absently stroke the side of her backpack. "Well…there were a lot of variables to take into account. And most of them we couldn't control. Frankly, I'm just glad we ended up in modern times at all."

Tony folded up the newspaper and put it back in the bin as they moved on. In the back of his mind he was trying to sort out what they would do for shelter for the night. It was already chilly, and glancing up at clock on a building, only a little after nine. They would need to find somewhere to settle soon. "Come on," he said. "We need to find somewhere to bunker down for the night."

Beneath their feet, something else was happening. The Torchwood Hub had been fairly quiet that day, until the alarm started blaring, alerting them of Rift activity. "We've got movement," Gwen called from one of the consoles. "Rift energy…possibly as many as two life forms came through. Bit hard to tell though…"

Jack came down from his office, leaning in over her shoulder. Studying the screen for a moment, he pushed back, heading for the exit. "Ianto, Gwen, with me. Martha, stay here in case anything changes. If we need you, we'll call." It didn't appear that the energy signatures were too far away from them, so if they did need their medic, it wouldn't take her long to get to them.

As the Torchwood team headed out, the two life forms they were tracking were breaking into a seemingly abandoned warehouse. Tony pried a board off the window, then gave Jessie a boost up. He swiftly followed her. Inside, they clicked on their torches, and surveyed the place out.

"Whew," Jessie said, bringing a hand to her nose. "It reeks in here."

"Yeah," Tony agreed. "But it's not underground. And it's not half as bad as…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Jessie cut in, with the tone of someone who recognized that they should be grateful, and was. Even the weird dead animal smell wasn't as bad as what they had been living in the past four years.

A sudden movement caught Jessie's eye, just outside the cover of her torch. She swung it back around in the direction she'd seen the movement. "Tony," she said cautiously. "You see that?"

"See what?" he asked softly, lowering his voice. His hand immediately went for the weapon at his side, his stance sliding into that of a trained solider. Jessie mirrored him, though she reached for her tazer instead of her energy pistol. They didn't know what they were facing, and she didn't want to accidently shoot an innocent hobo.

After a long moment, neither saw anything. "Maybe it was a cat," Tony said softly, only to be answered by a low growl. Finally, Jessie's torch caught the hunched figure she had seen before. Only now it was staring at them with beady eyes and very sharp teeth.

"That's no cat," she said as they began backing up.

"Can you make it back through the window?" Tony asked, all casualness gone. He didn't want to start shooting if the thing had friends that could charge them. Jessie glanced back at the way they had come in.

"Probably not…let me try the door." Backing to it, she kept one eye on the creature, and checked the door. "Shit," she muttered. The hinges were on the wrong side to kick it open. Turning so that she was again fully facing the creature, she sided up next to her uncle. "No joy. Game plan?"

Tony looked around as best he could without taking his eyes off the creature. There was a staircase off to their left…but going up would likely only get them trapped. Before he could come up with an idea, a loud sound on the door made him freeze.

Jessie whirled around to cover the door, while Tony kept his weapon trained on the creature. The door imploded inward, revealing a tall silhouette of a man. The man charged inside, followed by two others. One ran up to the creature and sprayed something in its face. As it roared, the tall man in the long coat glanced in Tony's direction.

"Out!" The man shouted. Jessie and Tony exchanged a glance and obeyed. A few feet outside the door, they stopped, still half covering the door.

"What do you think?" Jessie murmured. "Torchwood?"

"Torchwood," Tony affirmed. "Only they would be mad enough to charge into the face of that."

A few moments later, the trio emerged from the warehouse. Tony and Jessie lowered their weapons, but didn't put them away. Rose's warning was still fresh in their minds. "Well," the apparent leader said. "You two didn't waste any time getting into trouble."

Jessie and Tony exchanged a look. "So…you would be Torchwood, then?" Jessie asked. Might as well meet the problem head-on.

The man in the coat put his hands on his hips. "Captain Jack Harkness," he said. Jessie gave a sigh and relief and pocketed her tazer, as Tony relaxed and put away his gun.

"At least something's going well," Tony muttered. Jessie just smiled and stepped towards the captain.

"Well then, Captain Harkness…I think we have a lot to talk about."

A/N: Please review guys. Save a muse, send a review!


	3. Storytime

A/N: At last, updates! I finally broke through my writer's block, and came out with this mess. Whew! It was actually longer, but I finally found a place to split the chapters. I'm not a fan of splitting one scene into different chapters, but this seemed like a good place. *Edited slightly, as I read over it and noticed some problems.

I'm getting rather discouraged by the lack of feedback, guys. Like it or hate it, please let me know. And if you like it, spread the word, tell your friends!

And a massive thank you to the…what, 3 of you, who have reviewed. You made my day!

Disclaimer: If I owned them, RTD wouldn't be allowed anywhere near them. And Children of Earth? Yeah…wouldn't have happened.

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The Doctor stuck his hands in his pockets as he exited the TARDIS, looking out at Cardiff in the starlight. He stepped aside for Donna to follow him, before tugging the blue door closed. A man in a suit stood calmly in front of them, like a butler waiting for his guests.

"Ianto Jones," the Doctor said merrily, striding up to the man. This was the first time they'd met in person, but he remembered him from the "Intergalactic Facebook" as Donna had termed it. "Lovely to see you. And not under threat of impending apocalypse."

Ianto smiled. "And you, sir. Ma'am." He nodded at Donna, hands clasped behind his back. "This way please."

The Doctor and Donna exchanged a look, and followed the man as he led them through a run-down tourist office into the depths of Torchwood. As the giant cog door rolled back, Ianto led the pair inside the heart of Torchwood. The Time Lord stuck his hands in his pockets, looking around with an accepting eye. It wasn't the corporate Torchwood he'd dealt with before—Jack truly was keeping it on a more personal level. And speaking of the captain…

"Doctor," Jack greeted, coming out of some sort of board room.

"Captain," the Doctor answered, nodding at him. He just barely suppressed a groan as Jack turned his eyes to Donna, a flirty smile lighting up his face.

"And Miss Donna Noble," Jack said, taking her hand and kissing it with a wink. Donna blushed, smiling back, as the Doctor rolled his eyes at them.

"Anyway," the Doctor said loudly, causing the two to break apart. Jack gave Donna a look, like a little boy who'd been chastised, before switching into a more appropriate "business" mode.

"Anyway," Jack echoed, leading them deeper into the Hub. Martha came up the steps from the autopsy bay, a young man just behind her. His expression was stoic, though there was something in his eyes akin to shock and worry. She smiled at the Doctor and Donna, taking off her latex gloves. The Doctor smiled back at her, before his gaze went to the young man. He wasn't someone from the Torchwood crew that he knew, yet there was something distinctly familiar about him. The Doctor just couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Doctor," Jack said. "We called you here, because earlier two people came through the Rift. Two people we thought you needed to meet."

The Doctor looked at Jack, concern and confusion in his eyes. He didn't much care for the sound of that. At his look, the young man stepped forward, hand extended to the Doctor. "Antony Tyler," he said, as the Doctor took his hand. "You…knew my sister."

The Time Lord stared at the man in utter shock. Yes…that was why he looked so familiar. He was a younger version of Pete Tyler, with perhaps just a little bit of Jackie thrown in. The Doctor couldn't think of a response, so many questions going through his mind. His mouth was dry at the possibilities of what the young man's presence might mean. He remembered Jackie mentioning a son, Tony…but the man's advanced age could mean any number of things. And Jack had said _two_ people had come through the Rift…

Movement in another part of the Hub finally caused the Doctor to drop Tony's hand. He looked to see a girl coming off of a spiral staircase, Gwen Cooper behind her. The woman the Doctor recognized, but his eyes stayed on the girl. She froze at the sight of him, and was staring at him with a mixture of terror, sorrow, and pain.

"Oh," she said, the small noise escaping her like a mouse's squeak. "Oh…but that's just not fair." Jessie stared at him, looking as though she was only a breath away from bursting into tears. She appeared to have only just gotten out of the shower, her braid damp and skin still glistening. Her black tank top showed her skinny arms, a few scars dotting them in random places.

"Jessie," Tony said softly, having turned to see his niece. She switched her gaze to him, her eyes becoming even more pained. He could see the weight of what they'd lost settling on her, and took a step towards her. She took a step back, grabbing her jacket from a chair.

"I can't, Tony," she said, her breath hitching a bit. For a moment her eyes flickered back to a very confused Doctor. Tony walked over to her as she zipped up her jacket, and placed a hand on her arm. She shrugged it away, heading for the door. "I just…I can't."

The teenager made a quick exit, avoiding anyone else's eyes. Tony seemed turn between staying and chasing after her. "Ianto," Jack said quietly. The Welsh man obediently went after the girl, just to keep an eye on her and make sure she didn't wander into trouble. Tony sighed, rubbing a hand through his hair as he slowly approached the Doctor again.

"Sorry," he said, looking up at the Time Lord. "We weren't…we didn't think you'd…we sort of figured that if we ran into you at all, you would have regenerated by now. We just weren't expecting you to look like him."

"Wait a minute," Donna said. "Who was that?"

Tony looked at her a moment, before looking back at the Doctor. "My niece," he said softly.

The Doctor's expression changed, a pained understanding mixing with the shock. "Your niece," he repeated slowly.

"What—but that means…" Donna started. Tony nodded.

"Rose's daughter," he said. "Jessie…her name's Jessie."

Donna looked at the Doctor, though he just stared at Tony, his mouth finally closing. "That's why she sort of freaked when she saw you," Tony continued. "It's been one hell of a day…and you sort of have her dad's face."

After a long moment, the Doctor turned and gave Jack a look, clearly expecting an explanation. Jack wordlessly turned and led the way into the board room.

Everyone filed in, Tony coming last. Torchwood hadn't actually heard the story behind the duo's mysterious appearance—Martha had called the Doctor as soon as they had told Jack who they were. It had been decided that it would be easier to wait until they were all together to hear the story. As everyone sat around the table, Tony remained standing, looking a bit out of his depth. He ran a hand over the back of his head again, searching for words. He was a fighter, not a speaker. He left that stuff to the other half of the Tyler clan.

"Bloody hell," he muttered. "Where to start…" Walking around the edge of the table, he sank into a chair. After a moment, he opened his mouth to start.

"There was a war." All heads in the room turned to look at the door, where the owner of the voice was standing. Jessie stood, arms crossed across her chest, looking coldly into the room. Donna was struck by how much the girl reminded her of the Doctor. She had his eyes, and at the moment looked for all the world like the Time Lord, when he was tired and the weight of his existence shown through his eyes.

Pushing off the doorframe, Jessie entered the room, Ianto silently coming in behind her and taking a seat. Tony closed his mouth, and folded his hands on the table, content to let his counterpart take up the story.

"It started four years ago," Jessie continued. "There were whispers of movement, along the edges of the solar system. Torchwood was on high alert…but then, Torchwood was almost always on high alert. There was nothing about it though, to prepare us for what happened." She took a breath, looking at the people around the table for a brief moment.

"The heads of state were gathered at one of their diplomatic functions. Gramps and Gran were there, since he aided the President. Mum and Dad would have had to be there too, but they hated those things. They were always making up stories to get out of them." Her gaze turned wistful, and a small smile crossed her face as she stared off. "One time Dad told the President that they had to stop this robot cockroach…" she broke off suddenly, swallowing hard. The smile was gone, and her eyes had somehow settled on the Doctor, a darkness clouding her expression.

"Anyway," she started again. "That's when it started. The zeppelin was attacked, out of nowhere. Despite the warnings…no one had expected it. No one thought they were so close. But they took the zeppelin, and broadcast it out to the world. They wanted us to see what was going to happen to the world. Starting with our leaders. They wanted the human race to behold their fate." Jessie paused, taking a deep breath.

"Everyone on board the zeppelin...they just…killed them. Right then. No negotiations…they were just…dead." Jessie ended up behind Tony, one hand going to his shoulder. He reached up and squeezed it, a haunted look in his eyes as he remembered the night his parents had been killed. A quiet moment passed, and Jessie took a step back, returning to her slow pacing down a side of the room.

"Fortunately, Gramps had been able to get word to Mum, when the zeppelin was taken. When it looked like things were going to go bad, Torchwood sent out the word. See, after the Cyberman attack," she nodded at the Doctor, "the world's governments had underground passages built. Safe havens. A virtual underground city, where the people of Earth could hide, should they ever come under invasion. So Mum sent out the word, for everyone to go. And that's what saved us, for as long as it did.

"The Raxons…that's what they were called…they poisoned the atmosphere. Within the first year, estimates were that a third of the world's population was dead. Eventually, we had to quarantine off the entrance hatches to the surface, because the gases could leach in. Anyone who volunteered to go up to gather supplies was going on a suicide mission. If the Raxons didn't bomb them, then they would be dead in six months, just from the gas. The masks we had just weren't good enough." Jessie looked over, her gaze settling on Martha.

"I knew a Doctor Martha Jones. She looked like you, parallel world and all. She volunteered to stay in the quarantined areas, and treat the men who were running supply missions. Died…probably a year and a half ago, or thereabouts." An eerie stillness settled at that, as if there was a ghost in the room. But Jessie just shook her head a little and kept going.

"We managed to hold them off, as best we could. At least no one can say the Raxons just swept in and took the Earth. They bombed the surface, managed to catch a few of the tunnels in the east. But…it was really only a matter of time. There were just too many of them. They just kept coming, and coming…Dad said they were like Daleks, except easier to kill. But in the end, it didn't matter."

Lowering her head, Jessie rubbed her face. "A few months back, it was decided that there was nothing more we could do. Last count, there were only…somewhere around two million people left, on the entire planet. And most of them were dying, from disease, or starvation…we were running out of supplies. And there were so many bodies—there were furnaces, going night and day. Still couldn't get rid of all the dead. So, it was decided. There were a handful of nuclear weapons that had been set up, aimed for the Earth's core."

She caught the Doctor's expression, hard and judgmental. "It wasn't a decision that was made by a select few," she chastised. "Everyone decided. Every human who was left got a say. And they decided, that if we were going to die, we were at least going to take out as many of those bastards as we could." Her eyes went back over the room. "We had worked out, awhile back, a signal that the Raxon scouts would send back to their ships, when they had found something important. So we made a machine that could transmit a massive signal, to the ships in orbit. The plan was to lure as many of them to the surface as possible, then blow the whole damn planet to hell."

For a moment, the girl looked a little proud. "So…how did you two end up here?" Gwen asked. "If you were going to blow everything up."

Jessie looked down again. "Dad had been working on this machine," she started. "Just tinkering, really. Since way back, even before the war. But when the war started, we got to working on it seriously. A last resort, he said. Just in case. It was a modification of the technology that had been used in the past. To cross dimensions. To come here.

"We had to modify it a bit. Just to keep from blowing everything apart. But in the end, we were able to work it out. Turns out that this Rift of yours doesn't just run through your universe. But the walls between the universes act sort of like dams, so that it all still stays separate. All we did was find a slip in the dam, and use a bit of jiggery-pokery to slide through." Jessie's hands moved with illustration, finally dropping to her side.

"So, are there others? Other people who'll be coming through?" Gwen asked. Jessie's eyes went dark, and she glanced over at Tony for a moment before letting her gaze fall back to Gwen.

"No," she said softly. "There aren't any others. We were working with a limited power supply, and…and Mum and Dad sent us through. But as soon as they did…they would have started the sequence to send out the signal. And start off the missiles."

Jessie had subconsciously moved over to Tony again. He took her hand, giving it a squeeze of encouragement. It was hard to think that, at that moment, in another universe…it was all gone. Their planet, their family…it was over. Silence filled the room, everyone processing what they had heard.

The Doctor looked over at the pair, taking in the sight of them. Pete Tyler was evident in Tony, and Jessie…she was exactly what he would have imagined, if he and Rose had ever.... He almost couldn't stand the sight of her, looking so terribly sad. Unlike any one else in the room, he at least could understand the weight of the loss of what they were feeling. "I'm sorry," he said softly.

Jessie's head whipped around to him, rage filling her eyes. "You're _what_?" she snapped. She stalked down the short length of the room, until she was opposite him at the table. "You're the one who trapped them over there," she said, hands on the table as she leaned towards him. "You sent them back, even though Mum begged you not to. Even though she wanted to stay here. You could have just left them here on Earth, and never seen them again. But no, you had to send them away, to punish them, all because he had the courage to do what you couldn't. Even though he destroyed the monsters when you would have stood there and let them devastate _everything_."

Infuriated, Jessie stared at him, her voice crescendoing with anger. Looking at her, Donna was again struck by just how much she looked like the Doctor. _She has his eyes_, the redhead thought.

"Jessie," Tony said softly, trying to stop the girl. He understood her pain, but this was going too far.

"You _left_ them there," Jessie snarled, with more rage than a sixteen year old should have been capable of. "You don't get to _be_ sorry."

The Doctor simply sat there, staring at her, and it was clear that her words struck him hard, making it impossible for him to tell himself that there was nothing he could have done. He looked so full of grief…here he had convinced himself that he had done the right thing by Rose, to keep her safe and happy, and this teenage girl who looked far too much like what he had imagined his and Rose's child to look like was staring him down and telling him that no, he had destroyed everything…

Tony bolted out of his chair, grabbing Jessie's arm and physically pulling her out of the Doctor's face. Pulling her to the doorway, he gripped her shoulders and bent over, staring her in the eyes. "You need to stop now," he said, in a terribly serious voice. Silence slowly leaked back into the room, as the girl looked at him, breathing heavily. Her eyes were still full of anger, but she did not bite back at her uncle. Finally, she turned and left the room with something like a growl.

No one said anything. The air was thick, as if everyone was afraid to breathe. Tony sighed heavily. "I'm sorry," he said softly, looking at the Doctor. "I…this has all happened so fast…" When the Doctor gave no acknowledgment to him, Tony looked to Jack with desperation.

Jack nodded at him, giving him a look of understanding. His eyes said that no one was going to blame them for what had happened. Gwen and Ianto quietly slid out of the room, feeling the need to give the others some space. Tony gave the Doctor one last look, before following them. The Time Lord simply sat, staring at the table, his companions on either side of him. Martha and Donna exchanged a look over his head, each unsure of what to do.

Martha looked over at Jack as he pushed himself off the wall, and squeezed her shoulder. Patting the Doctor's arm, she stood and followed him out. When they were gone, Donna leaned in a little closer to her friend.

"It's not your fault, you know," she said softly. "You couldn't have known what was going to happen. You did what you thought was best, for everyone."

The Doctor nodded shortly, not looking at her. Donna wrapped an arm around his shoulders. She knew how painful all of this was. Not just learning that Rose was more than likely dead, but everything, all at once…she couldn't help but feel a terrible stab of pain as well. The other Doctor, as she thought of him…he'd been part _her_. And he was gone too…

Getting the feeling that perhaps the Doctor wanted a few minutes alone, Donna patted his arm and left the room. She looked out over the hub as she approached where Jack and Martha were standing. Gwen had scattered to a computer station. Jessie was sitting on a ragged couch, one leg propped up on the coffee table, starring off into space. Tony wasn't far away from her, sitting on the staircase and watching her, clearly concerned. The exhaustion and pain on their faces made Donna hurt.

"Have you checked them over?" she asked Martha quietly. If they had been living in war conditions for the last four years, then any number of things could be wrong with them. The younger woman nodded, half-turning to her friend.

"They're alright, more or less. What you would expect, from refugees. Bit malnourished, but nothing dangerous. It's why Jessie still looks like she's only bout thirteen. She would've been twelve when the war started. Not the best time to enter puberty."

"Blimey," Donna muttered, as Ianto walked over to them.

"I was thinking I might go get some food," he said to Jack. "Everyone's going to be staying late…maybe Chinese or something?"

Jack nodded at him, and the Welsh man turned and made his exit. For a moment, the companions simply stood. Then Donna made a decision, and walked down the steps to where the Jessie Tyler was sitting.

"Mind if I join you?"


End file.
